Romantic Fire Encounter

In my room is a fireplace and ever since moving in I have wanted to have a romantic moment in front of it. Since my prospects of any true romantic encounter are remote, I solicited the help of two Valentine party attendees and one plastic hand. Brady and David happily obliged and I turned on the fireplace. The romance part was sufficed by us watching my favorite Valentine E-card together than we took this picture to document the event.

I did have a lovely Valentines. I tried to remember when I last enjoyed the holiday. Fifth grade was the what came to mind. So I went to K-mart bought Sponge-Bob Square Pants Valentines cards and spent a good part of my evening filling them out and sending e-cards. I decided I would celebrate my friends and family, those who I love and love me. It was great fun, much better than dwelling on singledom. Good times!

Epidemiology

What, you may be asking yourself, is epidemiology?

Epidemiology- the study of how disease is distributed in populations and the factors that influence or determine this distribution.

I love this word. Not only is it fun to say but most people have no idea what it means. Thus I look very intelligent when I explain it or when I casually say, "Oh, I need to go do my epidemiology." those not in the know think I am going to cure cancer or something.

This is a refreshing event for someone who is in two disciplines (social work and public health) often considered "soft sciences" or even "common sense". Epidemiology has changed that, at least in public health; most social workers don't know what it is either.

The downside to all of this is that my epidemiology class is not really that exciting. You would think the sheer vital nature of the information would be exciting enough, alas it is not. This is the teacher's first time teaching the class, and while the content is critical it is conveyed in such a way that spoils what could be a burning passion not only in myself but several other aspiring public health professionals if it was just presented better.

My solution, the professor should be forced to take a class in the drama department and watch The Painter Veil.

Where the Streets Are Not Plowed

I thought of this entry as I drove to school today at 7:45 a.m. on unplowed roads. I found it interesting that the city of Ann Arbor had missed the weather report from the last week, that reported that we would have a winter storm watch starting at 12:00 a.m. and lasting until Friday evening. That is the only logical explanation to why the main thorough fares of the city had not been plowed and I had to fish tail it all the way to campus. This entry will be more enjoyable if you sing the tune of U2's song "Where the Streets Have No Name".

I am going to try by popular request, or at least at the request of three siblings, I will start to write more about my studies; social work, public health, social justice, poverty, health disparities and whatever else might crosses my mind. In the mean time this great pic from my 5th birthday will tide you over.

Writer's Block

No I am not referring to a Peter, Bjorn and John album but to my frustrations as a blogger. How do people have things to write all the time. I guess I need to have a theme or a child. That seems to be effective in ensuring that people have continual subject matter to write about. I am afraid my masters studies are just not enough a theme to hold my attention let alone anyone else's.
Argh! Well hopefully subsequent entries will be less angst ridden and vindictive against successful bloggers:)

Who knew cars needed oil?

I am going to relate the events that have been a popular topic of conversation lately as I have returned to school and everyone asks how my break went. I rode home with Maggie, my roommate, so she could pick up her new car.

Michigan to Utah Dec 18-20:

The trip went relatively smoothly in reference to the car at least until about 50 miles outside Rock Springs. Maggie was driving and I was half asleep. Suddenly there was a clanking noise and the oil light went on. Maggie immediately pulled over. We got out to investigate and that's when Maggie remembered that her car had an issue with oil. Unfortunately we had not been checking it on our way.

This really nice man, Bill, stopped and helped us. When he first stopped I was a little concerned but by the time he left I know he was God-sent.

We put in a quart of oil but it didn’t make a dent. Bill checked his car and didn’t have any oil but offered to take us back to Wamsutter to get some. At that point I was praying that he really was a nice man just helping us. I didn’t get any bottomless pit feeling so I we went along with him and got some more oil. Once we got back and put in more oil in the car we tried it to see if the engine had been lubricated enough to stop the clanking. Unfortunately the problem was not just lubrication. So we sat in the man’s car while Maggie called her parents. They had AAA so we got towed to Rock Springs. We spent the night there in a lovely Econo Lodge. The next day Maggie’s mom came and picked us up and left the car in Rock springs. It has since been towed to Utah to get a new engine.

Utah to Michigan Jan 1-2:

After ringing in the New Year at a great party given by my other roommate Stephanie, I went back to Maggie’s to stay the night. We left early the next morning around 7:30. That is when it was apparent that we might have some troubles on our journey. Maggie’s new car would not heat up. We had to get going 80 mph before we felt any real heat. We drove through Wyoming and just outside of Cheyenne the check engine light came on. We pulled over and got some information from Beth Cook that Auto Zone would be open and they could read the engine’s computer. So we went to Auto Zone, they read the computer but the reading seemed odd. They decided that it was the spark plugs and we would be fine getting to Ann Arbor without changing them. We continued on our way and made it to Council Bluffs, were we stayed with night.

The next day we started on our trek and immediately started having problems. The temperature gauge was getting up to high and shortly thereafter the people we stayed with called and told us they found liquid on the drive way. After making a million calls to people, we called Ace and he called a man in his ward who owns a car dealership. We found out the problem was antifreeze so we went to the nearest gas station and bought some and then started back to Council Bluffs. At the dealership they found the radiator had a hole in it. It was amazing that in a matter of just a few hours they had it all fixed for a very low price and we were on our way.

We were very fortunate in terms of weather until we got to Michigan where we ran into some lake effect snow. It was almost white-out conditions. That lasted for about 45 minutes and then we were fine again. We got home about eleven just in time for me to get to back and make it to me field placement orientation.

I have had enough adventures to last me the year.

Let it Snow, at least for today.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. That is the best way to describe what is going on outside right now. It started last night around 7 pm and has not stopped since. There is probably close to a foot now. Even so we ventured out and made it to church. I probably would not have gone but my room mates were very persistent. I am glad that I got to see the Christmas program. I was in the choir but it seemed like they had enough people and not very many people to watch, so I decided to sit in the audience and enjoy.

I finished finals on Thursday. Yeah! I am not sure how I did but I am done for better or worse. Now I just have my road trip home to look forward to. I am driving home with Maggie on Tuesday. It might be a bit treacherous but the weather forecast looks good for Tuesday and Wednesday. I hope it stays that way.

I feel like it is really Christmas now that I have time to think about it. On Friday I went to Greenfield Village, a small museum village started and sponsored by Henry Ford. It was really cold but a lot of fun. We walked around the village, rode in a Model T, rode a Merry-Go-Round and sang Christmas carols while fire works went off. It was truly a great way to start off the Christmas season.

I would like to wish all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Awkward

While this word has many meanings, the meaning that best described how I felt today during church is this one:

awkward: Marked by or causing embarrassment or discomfort: an awkward remark; an awkward silence.

We had three speakers today. The first speaker I would characterize as semi-awkward. The second totally so. I usually color a little during church to help me focus. Today my coloring became a necessity, keeping me from reenacting the scene from the BYU Pride and Prejudice when she throws a book at the speaker. To demonstrate how awkward it was, the terms freakin and screwed were said from the pulpit. I colored many a picture that day trying to give an outlet to the stress I was feeling.

On a more positive, less awkward note, last night was our wards Christmas Dinner and Dance. It really is just an excuse for people to dress up fancy and relive high-school awkwardness. There it is again, that word. Anyway it was a lot of fun. I ate a lot and danced a ton, even though I don't really know how, and just had a good time.